PUD Creature: It’s alive!

But this time, property rights-loving North End turns on businesses

While driving across the Flagler Memorial Bridge last week, I spied a large red, white and blue “Vote No, Pud 5″ sign attached to the back of a car. There was another as I turned north onto North Lake Way. As I got closer to the inlet, I was surrounded by a patriotic array of “No” signs in front of driveways, gates and on lawns.

There’s no question that the North End is a hotbed for opposition to the planned unit development model recently approved by the Town Council for Royal Poinciana Way. Just read the signs. I suppose we will find out how deeply the sentiment runs through the neighborhood on March 25.

Funny though, if North End property owners are generally opposed to a plan that would offer more freedom to commercial property owners, it’s a remarkable philosophical departure from their ideas about residential property rights just a few years ago.

At the time, the controversy was over residential development in the Ridge area of the North End. There had been complaints from owners of modest-size homes that large, new, two-story homes were engulfing them in shadow.

The Town Council and the Zoning Commission tinkered with possible solutions to the problem for 15 years — solutions that some residents didn’t want because they felt it would reduce property values. The town spent more than $100,000 on consultants and staff studies.

In 2005, the Zoning Commission ultimately proposed a plan that would calculate the average ratio of house-to-lot size from surrounding properties to determine a specified size limit above the indexed amount for new construction. They estimated that this would reduce the size of new houses and additions by about 14 percent from existing zoning regulations. This plan was presented to the community in a series of forums.

North End residents overwhelmingly were against it, 10 to 1. Why? Because they felt it would unfairly restrict their right to build larger homes and have a chilling effect on property values. They argued that the town should focus less on size and more on quality of architecture. They insisted that the question should be: Is the home an improvement to the street? “When people invest here, they want a facility that meets their needs,” they said.

Needless to say, the index plan was dropped.

Odd isn’t it, that when the same principles are applied to commercial property owners on Royal Poinciana Way, the desire to increase property values all of a sudden becomes a conspiracy of greed? And a plan that was designed from the beginning to focus on quality of architecture and improve the street to meet modern business needs is being vilified as the ruination of Palm Beach.

It’s odder still, that some of those “Vote No” signs are in front of large, two-story homes built on consolidated lots.

Join David Willson at the Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta, Florida Wednesday, March 12, 2014 for a presentation of his 20 year Palm Beach cartoon book and an exhibition of original cartoon art running through March 15, 2014. David has been the Palm Beach Daily News editorial cartoonist for 20 years. His new book, Billionaires and Butterfly Ballots, A 20-Year Palm Beach ‘Cartoonspective,’ is available at palmbeachcartoons.com and in local book stores and gift shops.